purpose the bailiwicks of Sens, Amiens, Macon, and Saint- Pierre-le-Moutiers were instituted; he likewise created a right of appeal from the courts attached to the great fiefs, and from the bailiwicks themselves, to the royal Parliament.
He organized the administration of the crown lands and regulated the raising of the revenues, by the appointment of seneschals, bailiffs and provosts, who were also empowered to lead the troops on the battlefield. It was not long before the authority of these officers assumed considerable importance, and that contributed powerfully to the overthrow of the petty feudatories. The creation of these offices was one of the hardest blows dealt against feudalism.
The fourteenth century was the period in which the long and disastrous wars against the English and the Flemish were waged; in spite of the havoc which ensued, it witnessed the enfranchisement of the country regions, the establishment of the indirect tax by the States-general, and the definitive suppression of the independence of such cities as had clung to their republican traditions. In Parliament various chambers were founded whose powers corresponded to the different functions which they were henceforth to exercise.
Owing to the reverses experienced in the war against the English and to the absence of King John who had been taken prisoner, the extension of the royal power was at first checked, and then a retrograde movement began. The States-general of 1356 took advantage of the circumstances to attempt to recover a part of the authority which the crown had arrogated to itself. They dismissed the royal officers and assumed all the duties of the tax-collectors. But the frightful excesses resulting from the existing conditions of anarchy caused the clergy, the nobility and the bourgoisie to rally in turn around the Dauphin, who promptly restored the old order of things.
During the insanity of Charles VI the members of the royal household, who were possessed of powerful appanages, excited violent internal discords, which the English made use of to promote their interests in the kingdom and to occupy Paris.
In the fifteenth century the evils had assumed such proportions that the entire country ranged itself with the king. Hatred of the invading foreigner, his spoliations and his outrages, called forth a great popular movement and, with Joan of Arc, the war became national.
The internal transformation was accomplished — military men were compelled to quit Parliament, while the legists were raised from the rank of mere reporters, which they had formerly occupied, to that of judges, and their influence became preponderant in the councils. The ecclesiastical graduates henceforth furnished the clerical councillors and took the place of the aristocracy of the prelates; the lay councillors supplanted the barons. Thereafter all the crown courts, from the highest to the lowest, were officered by men chosen and paid by the crown; and there were no longer crown vassals.
The administration of justice was entirely removed from the feudal power, which was by thus much weakened; its definitive organization under royal authority was completed by the creation of the parliaments of Poitiers, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rouen and Aix; and by the establishment of the different degrees of jurisdiction; first instance in the Provostships and Chatellanies; second instance in the Bailiwicks and Seneschalships; and jurisdiction of last resort in the Parliament.
The financial organization was also perfected by the institution of Elections and Generalities, the systematic levying of customs duties and excises and the suppression of the unlimited tax, which the castellan could impose à merci et miséricorde. The formation of the first regular and permanent army also dates from this period.
Lastly, the clergy was removed from the exclusive domination of the Holy See; it became national and independent, though at the same time it recognized the power of the French monarchy as supreme.
To recapitulate: During the Middle Ages a complete social transformation had been wrought, with the support and to the profit of royality: “ The abolition of serfdom in the country regions during the fourteenth century had completed the enfranchisement which had begun in the twelfth with the emancipation of the towns. The nobility was no longer sovereign; it had ceased to oppress the country. At this period the sepation of the provincial dynasties, by diminishing the number of independent States, diminished the causes of war, which, after the reunion of the provinces held from the crown, was transferred from the interior of the kingdom to its frontiers. The overthrow of the particular government of the different classes
prepared the way for their reconciliation and consolidation. The isolation of the independent States was succeeded by the less complete isolation of the provinces; the diversion of government, by a less marked distinction of the classes.
“ In a word, by the reunion of the provinces and the foundation of a general government, the royal authority brought about the triumph of the social principle, which was peculiarly its own, over the principle of individuality, which was inherent in feudalism and was consequently the rule of force. These results were attained only gradually. But tribunals established justice; the permanency of the army led to discipline; the stability of the administration to order, and the omnipotence of the crown to the homogeneity of the nation. Out of the debris of the old classes, a new people was formed which moved from that time slowly, but surely, toward the era of public liberty and civil equality. ” 1
At the moment which we have now reached, at the dawn of the Renaissance of the sixteenth century, which was about to revolutionize the existing order of things, the foundations of the nation were being laid; a distinct unity was forming whose ties would strengthen daily and whose external characteristics would become more and more marked. Up to that time, the French soil had received successively the agglomerated or disseminated deposits of races which were hostile to one another in origin, character, manners and interests. The deep stratum of the primitive race had been in ancient times covered over with Greek and Roman alluvia which rapidly entered into it and became one with it. Such was not the case when the barbarian invaders came; their occupation of the land was dependent upon force; for a long period they kept aloof from the subjugated and sometimes turbulent people around them, jealously guarding the purity of their blood, the tokens of their superiority and their domination.
The time came, however, when the heads of important families, holders of fiefs powerful enough to assure their independence, could no longer maintain themselves in this wild and scornful isolation. Gradually, the descendants of the men who had formerly been their comrades in arms dropped down to more precarious positions and were, ere long, lost in the mass of the conquered people. Outside of a few families, who were directly descended from the conquerors, diversities of origin were soon effaced. This is an important fact, which must be taken into account in the analysis of the complex elements which enter into the composition of the French nationality. By the mixture of the races, incongruities of character and temperament were slowly blended into a new whole.
The same process of unification went on in the social and political state. For centuries the royal authority, relying upon the municipalities and the communes, which it at length succeeded in attaching to its interests, had worked steadily toward the establishment of a central government, undermining the feudal institutions and overthrowing their dangerous independence; it summoned the religious power to its aid, supported and strengthened it, then, having used it to subserve its own ends, reduced the clergy to the rank of faithful allies of the crown. Feudalism, which long retained its military character, came gradually to furnish the king his officers and army leaders; its primitive independence was in time wholly lost and it became merely a docile instrument in the hands of the monarch. At the same time that the great fiefs of the centre and north were subjugated, the independent principalities of the south were brought under the domination of the king.
But the all-important fact for us to consider is this. The royal authority in choosing its auxiliaries from the communes and municipalities — remnants of the old Gallo-Roman institutions — and making use of the juridical and administrative institutions which it filled with men from among the common people, relied for support on the conquered people, as opposed to the conquerors, whom it was desirous of overpowering and subjugating. In fact, the triumph of the monarchy meant at first the uplifting of the original inhabitants of the country: they now had a place in the councils of the king and in the government; they furnished him his troops; and, taking advantage of a comparatively peaceful period, they built up the public fortune and thereby acquired social influence. It was this regenerated race which, as it represented the majority, was to supply the deepest, firmest and most permanent stratum of the French nation.
It is true that at the end of the Middle Ages stability was
1 Mignet: “Formation territoriale et politique de la France”
He organized the administration of the crown lands and regulated the raising of the revenues, by the appointment of seneschals, bailiffs and provosts, who were also empowered to lead the troops on the battlefield. It was not long before the authority of these officers assumed considerable importance, and that contributed powerfully to the overthrow of the petty feudatories. The creation of these offices was one of the hardest blows dealt against feudalism.
The fourteenth century was the period in which the long and disastrous wars against the English and the Flemish were waged; in spite of the havoc which ensued, it witnessed the enfranchisement of the country regions, the establishment of the indirect tax by the States-general, and the definitive suppression of the independence of such cities as had clung to their republican traditions. In Parliament various chambers were founded whose powers corresponded to the different functions which they were henceforth to exercise.
Owing to the reverses experienced in the war against the English and to the absence of King John who had been taken prisoner, the extension of the royal power was at first checked, and then a retrograde movement began. The States-general of 1356 took advantage of the circumstances to attempt to recover a part of the authority which the crown had arrogated to itself. They dismissed the royal officers and assumed all the duties of the tax-collectors. But the frightful excesses resulting from the existing conditions of anarchy caused the clergy, the nobility and the bourgoisie to rally in turn around the Dauphin, who promptly restored the old order of things.
During the insanity of Charles VI the members of the royal household, who were possessed of powerful appanages, excited violent internal discords, which the English made use of to promote their interests in the kingdom and to occupy Paris.
In the fifteenth century the evils had assumed such proportions that the entire country ranged itself with the king. Hatred of the invading foreigner, his spoliations and his outrages, called forth a great popular movement and, with Joan of Arc, the war became national.
The internal transformation was accomplished — military men were compelled to quit Parliament, while the legists were raised from the rank of mere reporters, which they had formerly occupied, to that of judges, and their influence became preponderant in the councils. The ecclesiastical graduates henceforth furnished the clerical councillors and took the place of the aristocracy of the prelates; the lay councillors supplanted the barons. Thereafter all the crown courts, from the highest to the lowest, were officered by men chosen and paid by the crown; and there were no longer crown vassals.
The administration of justice was entirely removed from the feudal power, which was by thus much weakened; its definitive organization under royal authority was completed by the creation of the parliaments of Poitiers, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rouen and Aix; and by the establishment of the different degrees of jurisdiction; first instance in the Provostships and Chatellanies; second instance in the Bailiwicks and Seneschalships; and jurisdiction of last resort in the Parliament.
The financial organization was also perfected by the institution of Elections and Generalities, the systematic levying of customs duties and excises and the suppression of the unlimited tax, which the castellan could impose à merci et miséricorde. The formation of the first regular and permanent army also dates from this period.
Lastly, the clergy was removed from the exclusive domination of the Holy See; it became national and independent, though at the same time it recognized the power of the French monarchy as supreme.
To recapitulate: During the Middle Ages a complete social transformation had been wrought, with the support and to the profit of royality: “ The abolition of serfdom in the country regions during the fourteenth century had completed the enfranchisement which had begun in the twelfth with the emancipation of the towns. The nobility was no longer sovereign; it had ceased to oppress the country. At this period the sepation of the provincial dynasties, by diminishing the number of independent States, diminished the causes of war, which, after the reunion of the provinces held from the crown, was transferred from the interior of the kingdom to its frontiers. The overthrow of the particular government of the different classes
prepared the way for their reconciliation and consolidation. The isolation of the independent States was succeeded by the less complete isolation of the provinces; the diversion of government, by a less marked distinction of the classes.
“ In a word, by the reunion of the provinces and the foundation of a general government, the royal authority brought about the triumph of the social principle, which was peculiarly its own, over the principle of individuality, which was inherent in feudalism and was consequently the rule of force. These results were attained only gradually. But tribunals established justice; the permanency of the army led to discipline; the stability of the administration to order, and the omnipotence of the crown to the homogeneity of the nation. Out of the debris of the old classes, a new people was formed which moved from that time slowly, but surely, toward the era of public liberty and civil equality. ” 1
At the moment which we have now reached, at the dawn of the Renaissance of the sixteenth century, which was about to revolutionize the existing order of things, the foundations of the nation were being laid; a distinct unity was forming whose ties would strengthen daily and whose external characteristics would become more and more marked. Up to that time, the French soil had received successively the agglomerated or disseminated deposits of races which were hostile to one another in origin, character, manners and interests. The deep stratum of the primitive race had been in ancient times covered over with Greek and Roman alluvia which rapidly entered into it and became one with it. Such was not the case when the barbarian invaders came; their occupation of the land was dependent upon force; for a long period they kept aloof from the subjugated and sometimes turbulent people around them, jealously guarding the purity of their blood, the tokens of their superiority and their domination.
The time came, however, when the heads of important families, holders of fiefs powerful enough to assure their independence, could no longer maintain themselves in this wild and scornful isolation. Gradually, the descendants of the men who had formerly been their comrades in arms dropped down to more precarious positions and were, ere long, lost in the mass of the conquered people. Outside of a few families, who were directly descended from the conquerors, diversities of origin were soon effaced. This is an important fact, which must be taken into account in the analysis of the complex elements which enter into the composition of the French nationality. By the mixture of the races, incongruities of character and temperament were slowly blended into a new whole.
The same process of unification went on in the social and political state. For centuries the royal authority, relying upon the municipalities and the communes, which it at length succeeded in attaching to its interests, had worked steadily toward the establishment of a central government, undermining the feudal institutions and overthrowing their dangerous independence; it summoned the religious power to its aid, supported and strengthened it, then, having used it to subserve its own ends, reduced the clergy to the rank of faithful allies of the crown. Feudalism, which long retained its military character, came gradually to furnish the king his officers and army leaders; its primitive independence was in time wholly lost and it became merely a docile instrument in the hands of the monarch. At the same time that the great fiefs of the centre and north were subjugated, the independent principalities of the south were brought under the domination of the king.
But the all-important fact for us to consider is this. The royal authority in choosing its auxiliaries from the communes and municipalities — remnants of the old Gallo-Roman institutions — and making use of the juridical and administrative institutions which it filled with men from among the common people, relied for support on the conquered people, as opposed to the conquerors, whom it was desirous of overpowering and subjugating. In fact, the triumph of the monarchy meant at first the uplifting of the original inhabitants of the country: they now had a place in the councils of the king and in the government; they furnished him his troops; and, taking advantage of a comparatively peaceful period, they built up the public fortune and thereby acquired social influence. It was this regenerated race which, as it represented the majority, was to supply the deepest, firmest and most permanent stratum of the French nation.
It is true that at the end of the Middle Ages stability was
1 Mignet: “Formation territoriale et politique de la France”